Sophie, back in the real world was happy to watch the games end. Life was slowly returning as players, one after the other returned to reality. She glanced at the wall of monitors ahead of Georges, one screen in the bottom right corner worried her. A large plume of red dust filmed in the distance above the Martian scar seemed menacing. There was a lot of commotion as the round of scoring of each player began.

This purple thing was a diversion, she felt it, a giant waste of time. Sophie got up, grabbed from her dad the plush toy and sent a kiss his way as he was being interviewed online on the monitor next to his cradle. Everyone half wondered if, or even when she would getting ready to jump in this electrifying quantum world. She could save the creatures from this invention or try to save the Earth from the planetoid. No one really worried. If true,the young girl was so powerful she could wish the planet away.

“Is daddy okay,” she asked Doctor Shin.

“Oh, yes.” The lady was always wonderful.

She needed these people to conduct their little game without her disapproving eye. She waved, sent a kiss to the cameras and as she was about to walk out, from the corner saw Marilyn’s face on a screen next to Georges. The living computer was pointing to a little earbud on the desk. The computer creature wanted some privacy.

Sophie slid it in. "Sophie, if it's okay, I wanted a couple of minutes to speak with you as around 27 winds down. Laurent is qualified. If you watch the footage, I need to warn you, I am only a machine; I have my limitations. I am sure Liam will offer the same guidance. In this rare case, my recreations can only go so far. Earth needs to be saved and as you jump in to help, happy to help. To tell you the truth, I have no clue how the Metil population will react to your father's proposal. I just played along and assumed you would be able to switch the polarity of those pairs of rocks. At some point, my recreations become more fiction than reality. That's a function of intuition more than mathematics or logic, and it's something we machines don't naturally excel at. I don't want you to think what happens on the screen will be Holy Writ as to what happens when you enter the Purple. Round 27 is intended as a guide, an educated guess."

Marilyn really cared and was trying to help her. Like a child given a pair of pants as birthday gift, Sophie forced a polite smile and was emotionless as if she really did not care about the Round 27 help. "Liam says the simulations looked very realistic. Daddy is doing great, right?" asked Sophie with a hand on her father's head.

"You mean in the game, or in life generally?"

"Both."

"In the game, his kindness to the local population will score well. But all this will not change the outcome, Earth will be destroyed if you do as he suggests. But your father and Emilio are so far ahead in the rankings that short of disqualification, they will be the final two contestants on November 21, 2072. Everyone knows it, and frankly, everyone is more than happy with this fact."

Sophie was proud of her dad. “This is going along well.”

"I know. As for the other part of your question," said the computer as the commercials played, "he still has moments of deep depression. But remember his unique circumstances. As you heard when Georges spoke of the creation of an intelligence in the digital world, his transition, for lack of a better word, is laced through and through with difficulties. The only thing keeping him alive is you. The arrival of Malik has greatly improved your father's psyche," continued Marilyn. Milly and Georges avoided each other's gaze. "Getting the boy in his head was a nice touch." There was a sensitive side to Marilyn. "Laurent is, if you can believe it, the closest thing I hold to my kind. We both live here, in this electrical world dependent on energy like you need air."

"What are the other sixty-two simulations like?" asked Sophie, “Did everyone at least have fun?”

"Oh yes. This is highly entertaining. Most people brought along Liam, a clear favorite. Wait until you see the crazy characters of the next round of play. This old guy proved very helpful to most. I would suggest you bring him along when you visit. I know Liam is listening in so please ask him about what we call here Hawkins' relative time."

“Relative time, what is that?” Sophie felt Liam already knew what she was talking about.

“You really want to know?” he asked in her mind.

“Yes,” the answer pleased the computer intelligence.

“My familiarity with mankind remains partial but the works of a handful of your most famous seems to intrigue Marilyn. Relative time is Stephen Hawkins’s end of life legacy. He was a physicist trapped, like Laurent, in a powerless body. He was very sick for a long time, decades actually. He postulated what he called “relative time.” The first version was a bit simplified but like Relativity, it was much improved after his passing. Based on my extensive new understanding of Multiversal dynamics, Relative Time was by far his greatest achievement. His last wish was for this theory to enter the real of fiction authorship knowing its proof was centuries away.”

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As usual, Sophie’s mind was ahead, she changed the topic asking, “Moving black holes?”

“Those were not black holes. Humans still think there are four dimensions in space-time, but Hawkins felt that was incorrect. Once the other dimensions are taken into consideration, the need for fixed time vanishes. Most humans talk three-dimensional space and time creating four. Even Hawkins believed that nonsense for a while. But then, stuck, he wondered why was time even conceived as a line.”

“You are talking to a twelve year old, you know that?”

“Apology.”

“No, I actually was being sarcastic. This stuff is interesting. Can you continue?”

“With pleasure. Each person thinks they see colors as everyone else does, but when you think about it, is that the case? Each time I point to something red and say it's red, to Sophie, even if she sees pink, she will go along with my perception of red. At least to me and if she's not feeling rebellious.” Marilyn winked. “Similarly, there is no reason for social media users to see or feel things the same, telling us that both perception and reason are in the eye of the beholder. So why would we each perceive time the same? Some humans are considered more intelligent because they think or reason faster, but maybe the way they experience time is merely different. Your father's internal clock has been detached from his body. Like myself, he now drifts. But Hawkins goes one step further. He wondered why time itself would be a tool equal to everyone. Once you stop seeing time as linear, the need for a similar evolution of time vanishes. Am I making sense?"

"I am not sure if I will go back to the Purple. I must talk with Liam first. I am trying to figure out his cause and consequence theory. It is beginning to make sense to me, and if he is correct, my job is not about saving anyone, in fact maybe the Multiverse needs me to do nothing."

Marilyn disagreed but forced herself silent, “Very wise little one. I will care for your father, he needs a rest in our digital world, this was very taxing to him.” Georges saw more emotion appear on the face of his creation. It was genuine surprise. The computer had never anticipated the girl would not take the information she helped generate in around 27 and not return to the Purple. There was logic in any plan of action, and the computer was trying to understand what the girl's reasoning could be. Dooming mankind to death wasn’t part of the possible outcomes.

Milly, microphone in hand asked Sophie one last question on her way out. “Would you let all of us die, seriously?” There was a gasp in the room. Sophie took no affront. Milly was asking the right question.

"The more I get involved, the more I am uneasy with this entire situation. I have been trying to understand Liam's theory and each time I come across the same problem. No one here has the best interest of the Multiverse in mind. Everyone wants things to stay the same. If it's true, then our dimension needs to end. By protecting it, we are trying to spoil the efforts of the Multiverse. The Multiverse may want our dimension to die so it can transform like a butterfly. It may have cancer that needs eradicating. I think it wants something different; I just don't know what it needs." Marilyn's expression was priceless. The girl's words gave her pause. "What if the last four attractions in fact worked? I think it’s stupid to act without knowing why, I will not use any of this power unless I am convinced it needs to be done. So far, nothing suggests we are better then Malik’s culture.”

Marilyn was worried, what the girl was suggesting was genocide. Milly asked, "Why did the Multiverse send you to see Liam, then to the Purple?"

"A good point," she answered. "I don't know what is genuinely going on. But I know now why I was picked."

"Why?" the journalist asked the obvious question.

"If I were the Multiverse and were forced to give the keys to my house to someone while I redecorated, I would give them to the only person I could trust not to use my keys. I don't feel good going to this other world. In fact, I don't want to. I think I am the only person in the world if given this power that would not use it. That's why I was chosen, and that's why I hesitate to go. No matter what you put on those screens, I plan to do what I feel is right, not what anyone tells me to do."

"How can saving the world and saving yourself in the process be the wrong thing to do?" asked Marilyn.

"I am still upset at how you used me to grab this thing you call the Dot. You should have asked."

"You would not have said yes."

"How do you know? Liam was in charge of the Dot, and if he felt it would help me with my mission, I am sure he would have handed it over. He is confirming it as we speak. You know I am right.”

"That is not how things work."

"That's my point; you act like all the adults. You take charge, you do things and justify it by telling yourself other ways were not open to you. If you are right, and things are as simple as changing the Purple, the Multiverse would not have picked me. Everyone is better suited than me to face the problems you articulate."

"Sophie, you are playing a dangerous game."

"Liam says for a young girl, I make a surprising amount of sense."

"I like Liam. Sophie," concluded the computer intelligence, "I think you and Liam do not understand that the last thing I want is to control and direct you. I still think unless you pull a miracle in a couple of weeks, we will all vanish. I do not want to die. My own father’s life is on the line. I do think you are unique in many ways and I also think putting our destiny in your hands is wise. Today, if I were forced to pick someone to save me, your name would still be first on that list. But your conclusion is wrong."

Sophie smiled and walked out from the frenetic gaming room. Adults in the room felt childish - they were being schooled by a young Attractor.

Outside the Martian sand was rising in the distance, it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off in the deep scar of the Martian landscape.

Sophie looked at that monitor, “is this happening now?”

Marilyn answered, “It is not moving our way, yet.”

She walked out. She needed to think and went to her room.